OldSchoolPhotoLab — Attraction in Dover

TLDR: They are great and you should definitely use them.

I'm not a film photographer, but I decided to buy a couple of disposable cameras for a trip to the beach with my mom for her 50th birthday. The idea being that we could take some fun photos, have them developed, and make a photo book out of them. Something tactile in this digital world. My only problem was that all the local camera stores in my area had terrible reviews for film development. It seemed to be a coin toss as to whether your film came back great or some chemical disaster resulted in you losing the whole roll. So I decided I would just ship off the cameras to have the film developed instead, and remembered Old School Photo Lab from a YouTube video I had watched awhile back. Seemed like a good company and decided to give them a try.

The process of choosing your package is quite simple. No gimmicks, confusing systems, or misleading info. Prices are pretty comparable to other film labs, whether you're dropping your film off or mailing it. The prepaid shipping took a few days to get there, but that's the Post Office's fault, not theirs. Once they received my film, however, it was a very quick process and turnaround. I was told 3-6 business days would be needed to develop the disposable cameras, but I had my scans the next day. Great quality on the basic package as well. I received my negatives in the mail the following week.

The only "problem," (and I say this very lightly), I had during the whole process was that I paid the $1.00 charge to not have my film cut, for each roll, but I they mistakenly cut them anyway. This, however, was rectified before I could even consider raising an issue. Inclosed with my negatives was a short handwritten note apologizing for the mistake, accompanied by two gift cards which would cover the cost of developing and scanning a roll of film each.

Reader, I cannot stress how good it feels to have top notch customer service like that. It was a mistake that cost me a grand total of $2.00. Yet they have essentially given me what is, at least, a $40 value between the gift cards. Automatically. No requests made. No angry phone calls needed. Nothing. Just plain old fashion good customer service. I'm only 27 years old, but my mother has been in customer service her whole life, and I know a good company when I see one. This is a good company.

I don't even shoot film, but how can I possibly let such a value go to waste? I'm sure Old School Photo Lab will be seeing two more disposable camera's from me in the future, and if/when I ever decide to make the leap to film photography, they will be my first stop for all...

I sent in some film that my grandfather had left in his old camera. I think the film was Kodak Color 40 (maybe), and they called to let me know they didn't have correct chemicals to process the film and if I wanted done it would come out black and white. I appericate that they called, which is what I wish they would have done for the prints.

So I ordered the prints, but I did get to see the scanned versions 1st. It came out horrible, you can barely see anything. I'm not an expert, but it looks like an exposure problem. So I was hoping they would have called me about it or even used some editing to make them come out better.

So the prints I payed for are basically trash. Anyways I'm sure with other film these guys are great, but this was a...

Just had a really positive experience with these folks. I had found an old 35mm camera that used to be my dad's; I brought it in and they helped me look it over, get it working (dead battery), showed me how to use it, gave me some "getting started" tips, etc. All in all, spent almost an hour with me just talking about my camera. After the service I received, I would have gladly overpaid for film developing, but it turns out their prices are cheaper than the online "mail in" development services. Very pleased, highly recommend you bring your business to this local shop and save yourself $$ in...